As a young boy Steven Berry, director of “Jazz in Philadelphia,” used to shine shoes outside of the Bird Cage Lounge which was located in North Philly on Ridge Avenue. One day he had a chance encounter with Charlie “Bird” Parker. He later shared what happened with an uncle. His uncle’s enthusiasm was contagious – Berry was hooked on jazz for life.
Category Archives: Jazz Venues
Chez LaBelle
Pianist Orrin Evans played gigs at Chez LaBelle during the spring. From the Oct. 31, 1994 issue of Jet Magazine:
Tritone
Tritone was a small neighborhood bar on South Street. It closed in 2011. Bobby Zankel played there on the 1st Thursday of every month.
The club debuted in 2001, when current owner Dave Rogers (a veteran of Fergie’s), and his late partner, music promoter and bartender Rick Dombrowolski (who understandably went by “Rick D.”), joined forces. While a bartender at neighboring Bob & Barbara’s, Dombrowolski, who died of a heart attack in 2007, invented what has become known throughout the city as the “Citywide Special,” a can of Pabst and a shot of Jim Beam for $3.
The bar is the last of its kind. While it can be difficult for a new band to get a foot in the door at Philadelphia’s other music venues, Tritone has always had a much more open-stage policy. This resulted in a vast array of live music. From death metal to punk to singer-songwriter to hip-hop, Tritone presented it all, seven nights a week.
La Gayla
Dottie Smith was a jazz vocalist who recorded and toured with bandleader Louis Jordan. Jordan saw her perform at Spider Kelly’s and offered her a job on the spot.
Jazz Historian and WRTI Jazz Host Bob Perkins wrote:
Dottie Smith opened her own place on Columbia Avenue, called La Gayla, a handle based on her married name, Gayle. She booked local icons Bootsie Barnes, Jimmy Oliver, Philly Joe Jones and host of others.
L.G.’s Blue Note
Located in West Oak Lane, L.G.’s Blue Note featured local and national favorites, including legend-in-the-making alto saxophonist Tony Williams, and vocalists Jeannie Brooks, Clyde Terrell and Barbara Walker.
Two Bit Club
The Two Bit Club was located on the top floor of the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge, a cultural center for the African American community. The building was demolished in 1994.
From a 1994 Philadelphia Inquirer article lamenting the loss of this landmark:
Lois Fernandez, who lives a few blocks away, was one of the mourners who stopped by last week to see the wrecking ball at work.
“Damn, we’re losing a big part of our history and nobody cares,” said Fernandez, co-founder and director of Odunde, the annual African American festival on South Street.
Back in the 1950s, when Fernandez was a teenager, the “O.V.,” as she called it, was the late-night place to be.
After dinner at the former Postal Card, at 15th and South, and drinks and jazz at the former Pep’s, at Broad and South, young African Americans told each other, “Meet you at the Two Bit” after all the other clubs had closed at 2 a.m.
They were referring to the nightclub that once was located on the top floor of the old Elks Lodge.
On weekend nights until 5 a.m., couples danced the stroll, the strand and the Philly bop. The men wore their hair in the close-cropped “hustler” style and dressed in suits of silk and sharkskin. And their dates did their hair in pageboys or poodle cuts and wore long flared dresses over crinoline slips, accompanied by high heels and white gloves.
It was at the Two Bit Club that then-19-year-old Fernandez held her breath as she waited to get past the man at the door. Once inside, she ordered a Tom Collins or a Canadian Club and ginger ale, and let it sit all night until it turned to water.
“You felt so adult when you went to the Two Bit Club,” Fernandez said. ”You were always trying to act so sophisticated.”
It was at the Two Bit Club that Fernandez listened to jazz bands and saw tap dancers, her first shake dance and her first striptease.
Spider Kelly’s
WRTI Jazz Host Bob Perkins recently wrote:
From North Philly, “Queen of the Organ” Shirley Scott was a dear friend of mine. Saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis heard her play at the old Spider Kelly’s jazz spot in Center City, and didn’t have to persuade her to accompany him to New York City, where they would help Count Basie open a nightclub. They remained the featured attraction for several years. Scott married saxophonist Stanley Turrentine in 1960, and they toured and recorded together for the next 10 years.
Don Gardner, managing director of the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts, played here. Don Gardner and his Sonotones included organist Jimmy Smith.
Spider Kelly’s is where legendary bandleader Louis Jordan discovered Dottie Smith. He hired her on the spot.
In a 2005 interview with the West Philadelphia Music, a project of the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, jazz vocalist George Townes remembered:
There was a little place on Mole Street right between 15th and 16th. There’s no more Mole Street now, between Market and Ranstead, no more Mole St. And a place called Spider Kelly’s that was a club, and there was Kelly’s, um, fishery next door, but Spider Kelly’s was the place, where if you want to hide from someone, don’t go to Spider Kelly’s, ’cause they would see you there, and that was a good place.
Geno’s Empty Foxhole
Web Christman opened Geno’s Empty Foxhole on Christmas Day 1970 in the lower level of the parish hall of St. Mary’s Church, Hamilton Village, on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. The name came from the title of an Ornette Coleman album.
The small space played host to Sun Ra and his Arkestra, Rufus Harley, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Cecil Taylor, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, among others.
Larry Robin, director of Moonstone Arts Center, shared that he took his now-wife Sandy here on their first date. It was Christmas 1976; Betty Carter was performing.
In a 2005 interview with the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences’ West Philadelphia Music Project, Christman recalled:
No, just, um my amazement at the hugeness of the crowd for Sun Ra, and later for Rufus Harley those are the two nights when the, there’s a little courtyard and then there’s the Parish hole and then there’s Irving Street which is one of those alley type streets that Philadelphia people were lined up all the way down Irving Street all the way to 40th street waiting to get in.
Trey’s Lounge
Drummers Philly Joe Jones and Edgar Bateman, Jr. were regulars at Trey’s Lounge.
Dowling’s Palace
A North Philly mainstay, Dowling’s Palace hosted weekly jam sessions with Lucky Thompson and the Budesa Brothers. Now closed, Dowling’s Palace will reopen in the Hotel Indigo planned for the repurposed Blue Horizon.
Stacey Dowling shared:
Hotel Indigo at The Blue will be reborn as one of Philly’s premier cultural destinations. Whether it’s an overnight stay, oldies but goodies, live jazz, blues or poetry, The Blue will again be where it happens.
For updates, check out Mosaic Development Partners.
All That Philly Jazz 